1. Technical Field
The invention relates to the organization and viewing of information. More particularly, the invention relates to a methodology for viewing large strategies via a computer workstation.
A strategy is a series of decisions that divide a population into subsets. The first decision divides the population into two or more segments (i.e. partitions). For each of these segments, a second decision divides the segment into smaller segments. The second decision depends on the choice for the first decision, and the third decision depends on the choice for the second decision, and so on. So strategies can be represented as trees, where each branch of the tree represents the decisions to make given the choices for earlier decisions. The “root” of the strategy is the first decision.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Displaying large strategies on a computer display using current methodologies is problematic because the structure of the entire strategy adversely affects the portion of the strategy one wishes to view. Navigation using existing methodologies is problematic because location context of a segment of the strategy, i.e. the decision sequence corresponding to that segment within the strategy, is not provided, and because navigation takes places by moving around the canvas on which the strategy is displayed, rather than more naturally navigating from segment to segment.
What's Wrong with the Current Tools?
The current crop of strategy display tools have a variety of problems, as follows:                Some tools cannot display all strategies.        Many of the existing tools cannot display certain kinds of strategies. For example, commercially available strategy viewers can only display strategies that have a single segmentation variable on each level of the strategy.        They do a very poor job of displaying large strategies.        Historically, strategies have been small. This is certainly true, in large part, because the strategies were constructed manually. One could also argue that the strategies were kept artificially small due to the fact that large strategies are so difficult to view and interact with using the existing set of tools. In some tools of this type, strategies are automatically constructed and tend to be large and sometimes very large. Even though the strategies are automatically constructed, it is still critical to be able to view and edit them. Even the most sophisticated of the current crop of tools does a mediocre job of displaying such large strategies.        All these tools employ the same layout technique, i.e. they provide enough distance between each pair of segments on the same level of the strategy to fit all of their descendant segments in between them. When displaying a large strategy, the segments closest to the top of the strategy often become very separated, sometimes so distant that is impossible to see more than one of these segments on the computer screen at the same time. This makes it difficult to edit and understand the conditions at the very top of the strategy, which are the most important conditions in the strategy.        Navigation through the strategy is inefficient.        Navigation techniques in traditional tools, such as scrolling and zooming the canvas upon which the strategy is displayed, are poor approaches to strategy navigation. When the canvas is too large to be displayed on the computer screen in its entirety with an adequate amount of detail, it is all too easy to lose one's place within the strategy and to lose locational context. These tools require the user to know the place on the canvas to which they want navigate. When the strategy becomes even moderately sized, it becomes difficult to remember where on the canvas a certain branch is located. It can require much trial and error before the desired branch is found. Simple navigational goals, such as “Go to the segment containing the segment I am currently looking at” or “View all the descendant segments of the segment I am currently looking at” are difficult to achieve quickly with the traditional tools.        The condition path is difficult to follow.        The sequence of conditions that must be met in order to reach any segment in the strategy is the condition path. The condition path is a critical element of a segment of the strategy because it answers the questions “How do I get here?” and “What does this segment of the strategy mean?” Despite this critical need, none of the current tools provides a way to view the condition path easily.        
No prior approaches exist to solve these problems. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a methodology for viewing large strategies, for example via a computer workstation.